Notable Kentucky African Americans Database

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New Homemakers of America, Kentucky
Start Year
: 1945
End Year
: 1965
The New Homemakers of America (NHA) was the African American organization that was to parallel the Future Homemakers of America (FHA). Both were established as segregated organizations for girls, beginning in 1945. The two organizations merged in 1965. Boys became members of the FHA starting in 1974-75. In 1999, FHA was renamed Family, Career and Community Leaders of America. The official magazine of the FHA was Teen Times, published four times per year. The official magazine for the NHA was Chatter Box, published two times per year. September 20, 1945, the Official Guide for the Organization and Development of the Program of the New Homemakers of America was published in Washington, D.C. During the initial years of the FHA,1944-45, Kentucky was the first state to qualify for a state charter. Among the 16 southern states, Kentucky was 8th to have NHA Chapters; there were 27 chapters with 777 members [source: The Growth and Development of New Homemakers of America by M. C. Moffitt, p.43]. The next year, there were 28 chapters with 792 members. The goal of both the NHA and the FHA was to bring together high school and junior high school home economic clubs, and NHA chapters were established in states that maintained segregated schools for African Americans. One of the NHA chapters was located at the Mayo-Underwood School in Frankfort, KY. In 1949, the state body of the Kentucky NHA was reorganized to strengthen the organization [source: "Kentucky," Chatter Box, v.5, no.1, Fall 1949, p.6]. During the year, there were four district meetings and the state convention was held in June of 1949. Two years later, the spring rally was held at Kentucky State College [now Kentucky State University], and Mrs. Roxie B. Butler and her college homemaking students were hosts to the NHA delegates [source: "Kentucky in the spring," Chatter Box, v.6, no.2, Spring 1951, p.14]. The last year of the NHA, there were 2 chapters in Kentucky with 102 members; it was the lowest number of chapters and members per state [Mofitt, p.57]. For more see History of FHA-FCCLA, a Nicholas County, KY, school website; Chatter Box: for New Homemakers of America, 1945-1965 [bound issues of the Chatter Box publication]; and The Growth and Development of New Homemakers of America by M. C. Moffitt. There are photographs of members of the New Homemakers of America at Kentucky State University, within the Rufus Ballard Atwood Papers, ca. 1929-1965: New Homemakers of America - Photographs -, [n.d] [box: 27, folder: 10].

See photo image of NHA students at Mayo-Underwood School, at Kentucky Historical Society Digital Collections.

National Officers of the NHA from Kentucky -- Sources: The Growth and Development of New Homemakers of America by M. C. Moffitt, pp.101-106; and Chatter Box